Welcome Mike Stidham

[Haruo]

Bookstore Clerk at Eden Theological Seminary. Glad to have you here.

[Tim Bonney]

Welcome Mike! I'm originally from Kirkwood, MO.

[Mike Stidham]

Thanks for the welcome. I am a student at Eden Seminary, studying for ordination in the ABC-USA.

[Mike Stidham]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Hello Mike, Eden Has some very distinguished Alumni. Would you share with us how you discovered the Baptist life . com site?

I first became aware of the East St Louis, St Louis area about 1950 when an uncle of mine was Stationed at Scott field near Belleville. By most distinct memory is what was then the great number of four way stops in St louis. As An adult I have attended a few convention in St Louis and was glad to find more traffic lights. While my wife was in school at SBTS in Louisville 1995-98, we made a few visits to St Louis on trips to Jefferson City Mo., where our daughter lived at the time. On one trip we Visited the Arch and took the ride to the top. Come to think of it that trip may have been when I was at Southern 90-92. I had been there in the 1960's and went back in 90 at age 56. We are now in Up State NY, where she Pastors the Burnt Hills Baptist church. This church 227 year old church is also ABC-USA. I am retired but serve on the Associational Advisory board and On the NYS Regional Board of Missions and Regional Enhancement team. We will be coming through your area on the way to the Biennial in June.

I look forward to your participation here.

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

I know I went through East St. Louis to get to St. Louis once when I was a kid, but have only very hazy memory of the occasion, and the main memory I have was I think actually in KC, MO, i.e. a full statewidth's drive later than the Crossing of the Mississippi. Vague memory of the backside of a kind of slummy brick building where a friend of my dad's lived.

But then in 2009 I went to the national Esperanto convention in St. Louis, and took the opportunity to walk across the bridge to Illinois and back. Think maybe I saw a casino or something on the eastern bank?

Again, welcome, Mike! I take it that Eden is UCC-related? At least historically it was Evangelical and Reformed, which was one of the denominations that joined to form the UCC some decades back.